When one person (a “calling party”) calls another (a “called party”), all that is initially conveyed is the desire to contact the called party. The reason for the call, its urgency, the calling party's current mood or attitude or any other information that may attract the called party's attention is not conveyed.
Many mobile telephones are provided with a telephone book, in which names, telephone numbers and even associated pictures for a plurality of persons can be stored. If the communication network transmits the calling party's telephone number to the calling party's mobile telephone and assuming the called party's mobile telephone contains the calling party's information, that mobile telephone can display the calling party's associated name and/or picture when the calling party calls.
Great Britain Patent No. GB 2367723 A, as one example, teaches that a selected ring tone, vibrator setting or even voice information can be associated with entries in the telephone book of a mobile telephone, thereby enabling the party to identify the calling party without having to look at the display.
However, these and other prior art methods are static and can only be used for identifying the calling party. They do not provide any more information from the calling party, such as for instance about the nature or the urgency of the call or any other call-specific information.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a new and improved approach to personalized telephony and, in particular, a communication device and associated method that employ a novel communication setup method to convey call-specific calling party information.